Please Say That Did NOT Just Happen!!

I had the lovely experience last week of dismantling and cleaning my piano key by key...because a student threw up on it. She was my first student of the week, and it happened about 5 minutes into her lesson. She sat there a bit bewildered for a second, then it happened again! At that point I saw she wasn't going to move on her own, so I quickly guided her towards the bathroom. She threw up in the entry way en route, and again on the bathroom floor (at which point I opened the toilet lid for her!). Poor little thing, she was obviously feeling horrible, but I sure wish she had reacted a little differently at first...like turning her head away from the piano! Ah well. I called her mom to come get her, cancelled the rest of my lessons, then broke out my cleaning supplies, including my steamer, and cleaned/disinfected everything as well as possible. I didn't dare steam the piano, but used Clorox wipes on every surface I could get to. One helpful fact was that everything that needed cleaning was green--she had been enjoying St. Paddy's Day treats that day. Then I called a piano tuner and got step-by-step instructions on how to take it apart to the point where I could get every individual key as well as all affected surfaces inside the piano. While I was at it I vacuumed out all the dust bunnies, too. The next time it gets such a good cleaning, I just hope it's under different circumstances.

Brandon helped me take everything out as well as get it all back together, and I had my piano tuner come two days later to check it all out (it worked out well because it needed a little tuning, anyway). And now the next time one of my kids drops a paper clip, pencil, or who knows what in, I am confident I can get it out myself!

Definitely one of my more memorable lessons. Do you think I can instill fear into my students by telling them I once made a student throw up?!